Signature May/June 2015 - 42

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COMMUNICATIONS
IN A

CRISIS

How is the International
Bottled Water Association's
communications team
handling the Flint water
crisis? Very carefully.

42

MAY/JUNE 16

signature

BY CARLA KALOGERIDIS

It's not often that an association and its
members are at the heart of a national
news story, but it happened to the International Bottled Water Association.
IBWA (www.bottledwater.org) continues
to take a leadership role in the ongoing
lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint,
Michigan, which has affected more than
100,000 families - and yet, from a public
relations standpoint, it's not as straightforward as it seems.
IBWA member companies - including Absopure, Flint Culligan, Maumee
Valley Bottlers, Nestle Waters North
America, and Niagara - have donated
more than the equivalent of 2 million

bottles of bottled water to Flint families.
And although some would see this as a
tragedy with a positive PR opportunity,
Chris Hogan, IBWA's vice president of
communications, says it's a delicate and
complex communications environment.
"IBWA had been aware of the situation in Flint for some time," Hogan
says. "The secondary story is that it's not
a new story."
Hogan says IBWA members were
trucking in water to Flint through last
fall. "The members didn't call attention
to themselves," he says. "It's what we do."
Even so, nothing could have prepared
the association and its members for the
intense media attention after the Flint
water crisis broke as national news.



http://www.bottledwater.org

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